Setting

Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0300 123 1231 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Ms J Harper Principal Rosedale College Wood End Green Road Hayes UB3 2SE

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Ofsted 2011–12 subject survey inspection programme: English

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of the staff and students, during my visit on 4 and 5 October 2011 to look at work in English.

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Ofsted 2011–12 subject survey inspection programme: English

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text without their consent.

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Ofsted 2011–12 subject survey inspection programme: English

The evidence used to inform the judgements included: interviews with staff and students; scrutiny of relevant documentation; analysis of students’ work; and observation of 10 lessons.

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Ofsted 2011–12 subject survey inspection programme: English

The overall effectiveness of English is outstanding.

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Achievement in English

 Attainment in English at GCSE is well above average and rising rapidly. Students’ current attainment across reading, writing, speaking and listening is also well above average.  Students demonstrate exceptionally positive attitudes to English lessons. They are totally engaged in their lessons and contribute confidently. Their behaviour is excellent.  Over the past three years, students’ progress in English has been rapid. In 2011, 98% of students made three levels of progress across the school, and 67% made four levels of progress. The work of current students, as seen in lessons and in their exercise books, indicates at least good progress and, for many students, exceptional progress.  The college’s thorough analysis of the performance of individuals and groups of students indicates that previous gaps in achievement are closing between boys and girls and for students known to be eligible for free

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Achievement in English

school meals. Students with special educational needs and/or disabilities achieve very well due to effective intervention.  Rapid progress in the A level English literature course is raising attainment to above average. Students were seen to be leading their own learning in groups through interrogating and comparing poems, sharing and evaluating their notes, and making presentations on identified themes.

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Quality of teaching in English

The quality of teaching in English is outstanding.

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Quality of teaching in English

 Key strengths of teaching observed are high expectations, the use of challenging targets to match tasks to the range of students’ abilities, positive relationships between students and staff, consistently effective planning and a variety of active learning approaches. In outstanding lessons, the pace of learning is rapid. Students waste no time in developing their understanding of texts and in learning new skills. Teachers constantly check and extend the understanding of individual students, for example through probing questions.  Teachers’ very effective use of targets, assessment and marking enables students to know how to improve their work to reach their challenging targets. A particularly good feature of teachers’ assessment is their written evaluations of the strengths and areas for development in each student’s work.  The quality of teaching and learning on A level English courses is at least

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Quality of teaching in English

good and often outstanding. Strengths include teachers’ subject knowledge, use of resources and visual, auditory and kinaesthetic activities. In the outstanding lessons, students are set challenging questions to explore and they are encouraged to lead their own learning. Regular changes in activity and feedback from students ensure that learning progresses at a rapid pace.

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Quality of the curriculum in English

The quality of the curriculum in English is outstanding.

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Quality of the curriculum in English

 The curriculum is broad and balanced. Schemes of work are planned consistently and adapted to meet the needs of individual students. They provide successfully for the very diverse range of students in terms of their ethnicity, ability and socio-economic background.  The curriculum is reviewed regularly to ensure that students see its relevance to the world outside school. It is designed to promote resourceful, reciprocal, reflective and resilient learners.  Effective training is provided for the whole staff, for example in literacy, differentiating tasks and providing activities for talk.  The department provides a very extensive range of enrichment activities. The activities include: theatre visits, visits to museums and residential trips to promote cross-curricular work, public speaking, book reviews, writing competitions and working with local businesses.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management in English

The effectiveness of leadership and management in English is outstanding.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management in English

 Through their commitment, vision and direction, the Director of Teaching and Learning for English and her Associate Director of Teaching and Learning inspire staff to improve their practice to enable all students to make the best possible progress. Key to this success is the consistent approach to all aspects of English work and the contribution of all members to the strong teamwork.  Self-evaluation is accurate and thorough. It consists of detailed and regular analysis of the achievement of individuals and groups of students, timetabled reviews of students’ progress, regular scrutiny of students’ work, student conferencing, lesson observations and examination of teachers’ planning. Strengths and weaknesses are identified and appropriate intervention is used to address any underperformance.  Subject planning is informed by self-evaluation and the whole-college priorities. It focuses effectively on key areas for improvement such as

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Effectiveness of leadership and management in English

improving the quality of teaching and learning. The impact of the plan is reviewed regularly.  Subject leadership has been highly effective in improving standards of attainment to well above average. The capacity for further improvement in English is outstanding

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 disseminating the features of outstanding teaching and learning to ensure that students make rapid progress in all lessons.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

I hope that these observations are useful as you continue to develop English in the school.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

As explained previously, a copy of this letter will be published on the Ofsted website. It may be used to inform decisions about any future inspection.

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